marine life rescuers have urged the public not to get too close. it's just aftr 3:303m. time now for panorama. contains scenes that some viewers may find upsetting. our children are facing a mental health crisis. at least one in ten kids is struggling to cope. i'm never going to get better, i'm going to stay in this dark hole for my whole life and eventually i'm going to do it, i'm gonna take my life. overstretched health services are turning kids away — leaving families desperate. i had a bit of a mini—breakdown and said if she is not admitted it is going to be a complete and utter blood bath at my house. just how sick do our children have to be to get treatment? you feel like you need to be completely and utterly the illest you could ever be without dying just to receive help. we were crying out for help and support for a very, very long time, and she shouldn't

have deteriorated to this level. # she don't wanna go outside tonight...# i'm sean fletcher and this is my son, reuben. i'm a reporter, but i didn't know anything about mental health until two years ago, when he developed obsessive compulsive disorder aged 13. it might not sound that serious, but ocd filled his mind with irrational worries, which frightened him so much, that he was sometimes unable to move. can you tell me what ocd was like when it was at its worst? i might be worried that i'm going to do something really bad, like i'm going to accidentally kill you. it's like it starts to develop into, oh my gosh, i thought i was... i had a thought that i was worried

i was going to kill you, so then surely that means i want to act upon that. and did you have that thought about me? yeah. i felt i was such a bad person for having that thought to punish myself i stayed in bed and wouldn't let myself move. just try one step. my wife and i were very worried about reuben. but we found it hard to show medical staffjust how bad things were, so we decided to video him in the midst of an episode. just try each step, one step at a time. on this occasion, he wouldn't allow himself to walk upstairs and was self—harming. come on, i'll walk up with you. come on. let's walk up together. you're really hitting yourself, aren't you? this happened every day. in this video, you can also see the cuts on the back of his neck where he was pinching himself,

often breaking the skin. everyday actions, like getting out of bed, brushing his teeth, eating, all became huge obstacles. it took nine months to get the right help. during that time, our son was getting worse. reuben really needed a specialist type of therapy, which aims to change thought patterns. had he broken a leg, we would have got care immediately. where do you get help if your child's illness is in their mind? the answer is child and adolescent mental health services — or camhs — which currently treats around 400,000 children in england alone. it took far too long for reuben to get the treatment he needed. so i wanted to find out if the system is failing other children. over the past six months, panorama has been investigating. we've spoken to frustrated professionals working in the system,

and to families who are desperate for help. there are no resources, there's no one offering any support emotionally or physically. it was just a shut door every time. my child was completely failed. 13—year—old jess began self—harming two years ago. the number of girls admitted to hospitalfor this in england has doubled over 20 years. and it's a growing problem even in primary schools. i had a lot of paranoia and i felt like everyone wasjudging me all the time. and lots and lots of people would comment things like you're weird or you're really annoying, and stuff like that. how did that make you feel? all the things they've said are true. and then you start to get voices, and then you start to get just horrible, horrible feelings of more and more and more worthlessness. her mum claire went to the gp, who twice tried to refer

jess to camhs. but they didn't think she was sick enough and refused to treat her. jess was literally pleading for me to help her. she just slowly began to withdraw, she slowly shut down because she'd absolutely given up. jess also began drawing disturbing images. claire was so worried that she started sleeping next to her daughter to try and keep her safe. i was woken byjess saying, "i love you, mummy." and straightaway — she wasn't laying beside me, straightaway, i knew that was alarm bells and i ran out of my bedroom door, which she was standing with the noose around her neck. a crisis team finally saness in a&e, two months after claire had

first tried to get help. they were offered treatment, but by this time, jess was regularly suicidal. i had no feelings at all. ijust wanted to die and that was it. the number of children likejess who end up in a&e has doubled in eight years. some camhs teams provide 24—hour crisis care, which could keep them out of hospital. but this isn't the case everywhere. a panorama freedom of information request shows that at least one and a half million children in england don't have access to round—the—clock specialist support. could jess's crisis have been avoided if she'd got help earlier? camhs are rejecting more children now than five years ago, and child psychiatrists are deeply concerned. is camhs fit for purpose? i have colleagues working all over the country who are extremely dedicated, extremely committed, doing excellent work.

the trouble is the services are very stretched. we're not meeting the need, so in that sense, it's not fit for purpose. only a quarter of children with mental health problems currently get treatment. the government wants to improve this to a third — but that to me is still just a target to fail. they've promised an extra eli; billion for camhs. so where's it all going? in too many cases, moneyjust isn't reaching the front line. young people's mental health budgets for too long have been raided to pay for other parts of our national health service, and we all know the pressures that our nhs is under, but i believe urgently we need to see those moneys protected and ring—fenced. this feels like a double blow — extra money being announced, but with no guarantee it will be spent on our kids. so are short—changed camhs having to ration care? well, during our investigation, we were passed a leaked letter

from one london service that is doing just that. staff were told in january that they could no longer treat everybody who needed help, apart from the most severe cases, like kids with psychosis or those who are seriously self—harming. the camhs professional who sent us this letter said it's "a shocking state of affairs?. it's hard to argue with that. and we're told that this sort of thing is happening in other parts of the country, as well. the leaked letter came from waltham forest camhs. they told us the restrictions on care were fully lifted again this month, adding... i spoke to a whistle—blower who worked in camhs for decades. she got so fed up that she left, but still works with ill children and wanted to remain anonymous. my experience in the past eight to ten years has been a real

deterioration in children and adolescents‘ ability to access services. the thresholds have changed considerably. we've been expected to mop up cases which are in very, very difficult states. it really isn't good enough, when you think if we could have seen them earlier. when it's actually the service that's stopping that access, you know, that's a real crisis and a catastrophe. despite the fact that she was finally receiving some treatment from camhs, jess's behaviour was increasingly out of control. like us, claire was worried doctors didn't understand just how ill her daughter was. i took this footage because i needed people to see what we were dealing with. this isjess in one of her psychosis episodes. she looks terrified.

yeah. her eyes look like she's not really fully there. it must be really upsetting to see this. yeah, it is. yeah. because, you know what? we were crying out for help and support for a very, very long time and she shouldn't have deteriorated to this level, if she'd had help when we were asking for it. to someone watching that who has no idea about mental illness and definitely about psychotic episodes, how would you describe it? all your negative thoughts and all your awful things that have happened over the past week, alljust collapsing into one hour. almost like putting you in a bottle and shaking you up and then letting you out again. jess was only offered treatment with antidepressants by camhs after she tried

to take her own life. and shockingly, the association of child psychotherapists says they're not surprised. we do hear stories of children and young people having attempted suicide on a number of occasions actually, before they are seen within the service. the problem is that then they're very ill and it actually becomes increasingly difficult to offer them an effective treatment. whether children receive help — and the quality of their treatment — depends on where they live. jess's local camhs rejects four out of ten referrals — that's much higher than many others. they allocate an average ofjust £24 per child, compared with £135 by the top—spending service. i'm cold. after she developed psychosis, jess was taken to chalk hill, a secure child mental health hospital, and was later sectioned. this meant she was detained under

the mental health act and could only be released once doctors thought her life was no longer at risk. she was stilljust 12 years old. her mother claire kept a video diary during this time. it's a very unnatural feeling for a mother to be detached from their baby when they're suffering. itjust pulls my heart out. i'm so powerless. that's exactly how we felt with reuben too. around 10,000 children stay in mental health beds in england every year. on average, this costs £61,000 each, which is 30 times more than being treated at home, so you'd assume it's the gold standard. butjess and her family were shocked by the quality of care she received. it's the worst experience i've ever been through. i had people telling me

constantly that i was naughty. they didn't support me with not being very well, theyjust told me that it was my fault that i was in there. jess also told me she was assaulted by a staff member at the hospital. i was screaming and swearing at him, because he was following me around and i didn't like it and obviously i was having a psychotic episode, so i was like running on the floor. he grabbed my legs, pulled me back, did that and shook me upside down. jess only received five sessions of therapy while in hospital. she was diagnosed with autism, which the family feels was the only positive outcome of her stay. we'd learnt she had autism, but she came out with post—traumatic stress syndrome, because of the traumas and the experience she experienced whilst in the unit,

and an eating disorder. so she went in with a couple of things and came out with a bag. jess's local health service told us concerns about hospital treatment are investigated "as a matter of urgency". they said children that don't meet their treatment criteria are guided towards other support, adding... i know what it's like to have your child sent away. we were told that the only way reuben could access three hours a week of specialist 0cd treatment was by entering a psychiatric hospital. the therapy really did help, but we found being separated incredibly upsetting. mum and ijust cried in the car after we dropped you off. what was it like for you in there? if you live in an environment with, like, people who are self—harming and doing things like that then, like, that is inevitably

going to make you start to kind of have those thoughts. me and, like, a group of people walked in on someone, like, trying to kill themselves and that was really hard. i remember you calling and telling me about that. one of my main motivations was... to get better, was because of the hospital being so bad and ijust wanted to get out. reuben‘s hospital was a 45—minute drive from our house, which felt like a long way to us, but i've realised we were actually lucky. i used to be really confident, especially when i was in primary school. cerys, an 18 year—old from south wales, was a happy, outgoing child until she developed anxiety five years ago. little things started to just build up, so i found myself feeling a bit more uncomfortable in these social

situations and i felt uncomfortable going out into public places. until it did get to the point where my anxiety was so overwhelming that i couldn't leave the house and i couldn't go to school. cerys visited the gp three times before getting specialist help but, by then, she had other problems. i started developing symptoms of 0cd, obsessive—compulsive disorder, and it was all to do with my fear of contaminations. i would just spend my days just cleaning and cleaning the entire house. not long after that then, i started to diet, but it developed into anorexia. it was something i could control. i couldn't control these intrusive thoughts, but focusing on the number going down on the scale gave me a distraction. cerys eventually stopped eating altogether and was admitted to the ward of a general hospital in wales, but they didn't have the specialist facilities

to deal with eating disorders. the crisis team came, after being there for a week, and they were like, right, we've got you a bed, it's in london. so obviously, going to a psychiatric hospital in itself is really scary, then being five hours away from home is really scary. putting them both together is absolutely terrifying. as soon as i got there, ijust cried my eyes out the entire night. cerys‘s experience isn't that unusual. most children in wales have to travel to england for specialist in—patient care. we asked nhs wales how many children were seen out of their area. here's their response, and it turns out the number has increased by 8% over the past five years. the welsh government told us... they also said they are tackling staffing issues. it's a problem in england too,

with more than 1,000 children treated away from home last year. even kids who are accepted by cams can wait up to two years for treatment, depending on where they live. bex, now 17, started to develop mental health problems aged 12. she didn't want to be on camera, but we talked about her condition and she's happy for her mum, annemarie, to be interviewed. her illness first started with self—harming. she started cutting. and that was when i thought, well, this isn't right. and she started spending more time in her room and she became very isolated. so we went to the doctors and they kind of said that cutting is a coping mechanism and not to worry about it. over the next 12 months, bex‘s mental health began to rapidly deteriorate.

annemarie discovered her trying to take an overdose and went back to the gp. the gp referred us to cams, but cams basically said there was an 18—month waiting list. wow! 18 months? at least 18 months. desperate to get help, annemarie took bex to a private psychiatrist, who diagnosed her with depression. her health continued to worsen. eventually, we did get a referral to cams for a consultation. and my daughter really opened up and was desperate for help. and at the end of it, we were told that she was a teenager and hormonal and these things happen, and if we really wanted to see sick people, she would take us onto the ward and show us sick people. and then said to my daughter, and don't throw yourself under a bus just to prove a point. bex was prescribed antidepressants, but began hallucinating and,

during the next 12 months, her behaviour became increasingly dangerous. she used to hear voices all the time telling her to do bad things, telling her what a bad person she was. she was fantasising about... she wanted to kill people and how she would kill them and how long it would take, and she tried to kill the cat, and it was just complete and utter chaos. cams eventually sent a crisis team round. they offered therapy and drugs, but it didn't seem to help. by then, bex was making continual attempts on her own life. so what happened ? i had a bit ofa mini breakdown and said, you know, if she's not admitted, it is going to be a complete and utter bloodbath at my house. bex was sectioned aged 17,

after her mother had spent five years trying to help her. would this have been necessary if they'd had earlier intervention? even children with life—threatening conditions wait an average of 16 weeks for treatment. the government aims to reduce this to four. is the four—week target realistic? it's a good target and it would be great if that was possible. unfortunately, with current resources, it's not possible and what we don't want to do is get into a situation where cams professionals, cams teams, are feeling even more under the cosh than they already do with unrealistic targets. part of the problem is staffing. across specialist mental health services, one in ten posts is vacant. the nhs is trying to recruit an extra 2,000 cams staff. we're going to draw a picture about our mood. the government wants schools to play a key role in improving the help available to children.

thousands of extra staff are to join new mental health support teams, while teachers will be given training to spot problems early on. one in four schools should have this system by 2021. heathfield primary, in bolton, is taking part in one of the pilot schemes. kids here also take part in well—being classes. we have an enrichment group. we do massage and yoga, where we can relax our body, take our mind off the day and relax ourselves. we do mindfulness. so, it keeps us healthy and itjust relieves us. it gets me happy. it actually calms me down sometimes. say if i've done a bit of maths, which is a bit stressful for me sometimes, and then we can do dance and that's really fun. their headteacher thinks it's particularly important younger

children are equipped to deal with stress and anxiety. prevention is better than cure with regards to mental health difficulties and it is getting in and working with children as early as possible to make sure that children, by the time they've reached the age of 11, already have this kind of toolbox of materials to support themselves before they go on to high school. not everyone thinks the school's plan is going to be enough. it would be fantastic to have a mental health lead in every school but, in some school communities, you've got over 1,000 children and there could be just up to one teacher whose job it is to look after every young person's mental health. to what extent will this role replace so much of what has already been lost from actual mental health professionals that can best support and treat young people? the department of health told us they are... in most areas, kids who are still

ill when they're 18 have to move to adult mental health services for more help, but they're not automatically accepted. cerys recently turned 18. she's retaking her a—levels this year, after missing out on schooling. her recovery is still at a very delicate stage, but her first request to transfer to adult services was refused. i did fight. i said, look, i don't feel well enough yet, i want to go to adult services. but still, it was a no. and it was only after a few... i think about three or four trips to a&e when they realised this year like, yeah, ok, you do need adult services. so you self—harmed and that got you to a&e, and that has now got you onto adult services? mm—hmm. unfortunately, it is another waiting list to actually receive the therapy. how long? who knows, really? i'm just hoping it will be before university. up to half of young people drop out

of mental health treatment when moving from cams to adult services — but do many of them, like cerys, still need support? there's a real problem nationally in the area of transitions. so adult mental health services focus on adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major mental illness, and young people often feel that that is not the kind of service that they need. bex spent four months in a psychiatric hospital, but was recently released and is having weekly ten—minute visits from the cams crisis team. she has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. her mum is trying to be strong, but i can see she's suffering. ijust take each day as it comes. i can't even imagine what ten years is like, or even if she'll be with me in ten years. i remember the despair when nothing seems to be working for your child. itjust feels like, sort of, the mental illness has just robbed her of being able to show that to everyone.

it's robbed her of her childhood. come on. you just need to get the, erm, the right treatment. but how do you find the right treatment, that's the thing, isn't it? jess has been recovering at home after nine months in hospital. she's still not well enough to go to school and feels very let down. what i went through, the two years that i went through, they were awful, i'll never, ever get back. my son, reuben, spent six months in hospital. he's received excellent specialist 0cd treatment, which kick—started his recovery. he's not cured, it's something we're always going to have to deal with, but he's been taught how to manage it. it was, you know, the worst time of my life. and i know, like, i'm only 15 but, like, i think i'm pretty sure it

will be the worst part of my life for the rest of my life. none of the children and young people i've met during our investigation got the help they wanted when they first asked for it. half of all mental health conditions develop, like reuben's, before the age of 1a and early treatment makes a big difference. how many children out there are on a waiting list, deteriorating, going to have to be admitted to a unit because they're being ignored and not having intervention early? this is our next generation and they're in crisis. wednesday is looking similar to tuesday, dry with plenty of sunshine. cloudy and fairly windy for northern ireland. some sunshine across eastern scotland. more cloud to the far north of england. these

are average wind strengths. gusts of 30 degrees in northern ireland and scotland. temperatures through wednesday afternoon quite widely up to 21 celsius including the eastern pa rt to 21 celsius including the eastern part of scotland were you would see some sunshine. rain pushing further northward. still a fair amount of cloud of an scotland and northern england. a cool night across central and southern parts of england and wales. temperatures up to 23 celsius but everywhere turning caller but mainly dry by the weekend. bye—bye. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. our top stories: bill cosby is jailed for sexual assault, classed as a violent predator. the judge says he will serve up to ten years in prison. president trump attacks iran and china at the un general assembly, and puts his america—first

policy centre—stage. we reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism. the un's middle east envoy tells the bbc we may be on the verge of another war between israel and hamas. we' will tell you who has won this year's bbc world news komla dumor award, named in honour of our colleague who died four years ago. and, a long way from home, the beluga whale spotted in the river thames.